intelligence, but it is actually the result of an interaction between intelligence (capacity to learn) and situation (opportunity to learn), so is more socially-constructed than intelligence. Knowledge includes theory and concepts and tacit knowledge gained as a result of the experience of performing certain tasks. Understanding refers to more holistic knowledge of processes and contexts and may be distinguished as know-why, as opposed know-that. A distinction is often made between general knowledge, which is essential irrespective of any occupational context or so fundamental as to be considered basic life knowledge, and knowledge that is specific to a sector or particular group of occupations and only likely to be encountered in such context. Weinert (1999, p. 24), for example, distinguishes: general world knowledge (generally measured by vocabulary tests that are part of many intelligence measurements, and overlapping considerably with what is defined as crystallised intelligence), and more arbitrary specialised knowledge. This specialised knowledge is necessary for meeting content specific demands and solving content-specific tasks. In contrast to general intellectual abilities, one can consider arbitrary knowledge as a demandspecific competence. 01_2005_9377-txt-EN.indd 25 28-06-2006 12:23:26 Process CyanProcess MagentaProcess YellowProcess BlackPANTONE 5415 C Typology of knowledge, skills and competences: clarification of the concept and prototype 26 Collin (1997, p. 297) cites Gardner’s association of know-how with tacit knowledge and know-that with propositional knowledge. Another way of expressing this distinction is between declarative knowledge (knowing what), and procedural knowledge (knowing how). From this perspective, it is often argued that acquiring declarative knowledge (explicit factual knowledge) must precede developing procedural knowledge, which relates to utilising knowledge in context. Gagne’s (1962) model of hierarchical knowledge fits with this approach, identifying the knowledge set necessary for understanding, learning and performing well on a criterion task. This is then traced back to each subordinate set of psychological knowledge, providing a description of knowledge that is increasingly elementary and general. Each knowledge and learning hierarchy therefore rests on primary mental abilities, with the implicit assumption of a general learning transfer capacity and logic of knowledge acquisition. In all domains there is some logic that acquiring and comprehending new knowledge demands facilitating cognitive prerequisites and specific knowledge and skills. Given this interaction between knowledge and skills, their separation in a typology is not easy. Indeed, for Klieme et al. (2004, p. 70), higher competency levels are characterised by the increasing proceduralisation of knowledge, so ‘at higher levels, knowledge is converted to skills’.

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Typology of knowledge, skills and competences : clarification of the concept and prototype

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Cet article porte sur l'etude des processus de conception, et plus particulierement sur le role des «objets intermediaires » -tous ces textes, graphes, modeles informatiques, maquettes (etc.) qui accompagnent l'activite des concepteurs. L'auteur constate d'abord que l'organisation du travail de conception est etroitement liee au type d'objets retenus. Il s'attache alors a rendre compte des mecanismes a l'œuvre, en montrant que ces objets jouent un triple role de «traduction », de «mediation », et de «representation » des actions. L'auteur conclut sur la contribution possible des objets intermediaires au developpement d'«outils d'aide a la cooperation ».

Les objets intermédiaires dans la conception. Éléments pour une sociologie des processus de conception

The Swiss-Italian economist Christian Marazzi is one of the core theorists of the Italian postfordist movement, along with Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno, and Bifo (Franco Berardi). But although his work is often cited by scholars (particularly by those in the field of "Cognitive Capitalism"), his writing has never appeared in English. This translation of his most recent work, Capital and Language (published in Italian in 2002), finally makes Marazzi's work available to an English-speaking audience. Capital and Language takes as its starting point the fact that the extreme volatility of financial markets is generally attributed to the discrepancy between the "real economy" (that of material goods produced and sold) and the more speculative monetary-financial economy. But this distinction has long ceased to apply in the postfordist New Economy, in which both spheres are structurally affected by language and communication. In Capital and Language Marazzi argues that the changes in financial markets and the transformation of labor into immaterial labor (that is, its reliance on abstract knowledge, general intellect, and social cooperation) are just two sides of the same coin. Capital and Language focuses on the causes behind the international economic and financial depression of 2001, and on the primary instrument that the U.S. government has since been using to face them: war. Marazzi points to capitalism's fourth stage (after mercantilism, industrialism, and the postfordist culmination of the New Economy): the "War Economy" that is already upon us. Marazzi offers a radical new understanding of the current international economic stage and crucial post-Marxist guidance for confronting capitalism in its newest form. Capital and Language also provides a warning call to a Left still nostalgic for a Fordist construct--a time before factory turned into office (and office into home), and before labor became linguistic.

Capital and Language: From the New Economy to the War Economy

This paper examines the notion of ‘competence’ in the VET systems of France and England. While both countries have developed ‘competence-based’ approaches, underlying the similar terminology are distinct meanings, rooted in the countries’ institutional structures and labour processes. A key distinction is identified between a knowledge-based model in France and a skills-based model in England. Competence in the French sense is multi-dimensional and relies on the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge, as well as personal and social qualities within a broadly defined occupational field. By contrast, in England, competence refers to the performance of fragmented and narrowly defined tasks, with minimal underpinning knowledge. Thus, whereas ‘competence’ in the English VET system usually denotes functional employability for what may be relatively low-skilled employment, in France, it encapsulates the multi-dimensional development of the individual as a citizen as well as an employee.

Competence-Based Vocational Education and Training (VET): the Cases of England and France in a European Perspective

Cet ouvrage presente le developpement de la logique competence dans toutes ses dimensions Apres un rappel des acquis des experimentations passees dans ce domaine, et apres avoir associe logique competence et mutations du travail, l'auteur part du “noyau dur” qu'est le lien entre competence, organisation et performance des entreprises, pour ensuite en developper toutes les implications en matiere de strategies d'organisations qualifiantes, de sens donne au travail, de formation et de systemes de classification Ne reduisant pas la competence a sa seule dimension individuelle, il explore tous les aspects collectifs et sociaux de la demarche en s'appuyant sur de nombreux exemples

Objectif Compétence. Pour une nouvelle logique

Objetivo competência: por uma nova lógica

Le travail devient, pour partie, communication. Travailler, c'est communiquer. Cet ouvrage entend prendre au serieux l'emergence du travail-communication et donc en explorer les conditions de reussite. Quelles conditions d'acces au langage ? Quelles organisations aptes a favoriser une meilleure intercomprehension entre categories et metiers differents ? Quel systeme de controle de gestion apte a mettre en valeur l'efficience des echanges et des entraides, transversale aux divisions traditionnelles de la responsabilite ? De maniere plus large, quelle representation de la “communaute de travail” faut-il promouvoir pour que le paradigme du travail-communication puisse acquerir une legitimite et une existence reconnues et durables ?

Travail et communication : essai sociologique sur le travail dans la grande entreprise industrielle

L'ouvrage reconstitue la trajectoire de la « logique competence », en mettant en valeur les moments forts et les modifications que la notion meme de competence a connus au cours de sa trajectoire. Il eclaircit les principaux enjeux dans le rapport de l'individu a son travail, a l'organisation, aux appartenances collectives, a la strategie et aux performances de l'entreprise. Il montre en particulier que le basculement dans la « logique competence » ne prend pleinement son sens qu'a condition que l'entreprise bascule elle-meme, strategiquement, dans une economie de service. Pour conclure, un ensemble de propositions est esquisse sur la maniere de conduire concretement une « demarche competence », tant au niveau d'une entreprise particuliere qu'a des niveaux plus eleves.

Philippe Zarifian

Papers

Objectif Compétence. Pour une nouvelle logique

Objetivo competência: por uma nova lógica

Travail et communication : essai sociologique sur le travail dans la grande entreprise industrielle

Le modèle de la compétence. Trajectoire historique, enjeux actuels et propositions

Le travail et la compétence : entre puissance et contrôle